Love Blossoms
by Rainbound Angel
Summary: I'm tired of most ZAGR being one-night stands. So I wrote this little piece. Rating may go up (evil laugh... you know why) if people really like the idea.
1. It begins, part one.

[Invader Dee and Reiinko appear courtesy of DeadLegato. I was going to ask around if I could borrow other people's invaders, but I got lazy. Maybe if you leave me a review and you want your Invader in the second chapter, I can put them in. All others copyright the great JCV.]  
  
Gaz took a deep, solid breath. Her smallish hands were shaking slightly. She stared at herself in the mirror. Her purple hair, neatly pulled back with multiple clips and pearls, had already begun threatening to spring free through the hair spray. She could just see and hear it now: boing, and then everyone would laugh.  
  
No, don't think that way, she thought, wringing her hands. She looked so pale. Why should she be so nervous? She hadn't even gotten sweaty when she'd taken part in the big vampire-piggies video competition, and that was far more important than what was going on at the moment in her opinion.  
  
Everyone was bustling about. Things were so hectic and so loud. She couldn't believe she'd come so far, through so much… she couldn't believe that she was going on twenty-four years old already.  
  
Time had turned the girl into the woman. She stood around five and a half feet tall, with long purple hair dripping in a cascade halfway down her back. Her eyes had become dark and flashing under her thick eyeliner. She'd always worn it that way since she was a child playing dress-up, she thought in an amused way. She lightly touched the mirror, surrounded in sculpted white roses. I look like the pictures of mom, she thought. She hoped she wouldn't cry. Not today. Today was… a happy day.  
  
Her plastic skull locket was cold against her breasts, as she had it tucked neatly under her dress. It wasn't appropriate for the occasion, but she felt that it was so important to her past that she had to have it there with her. Mom will be watching from heaven, her dad had said to her that morning. And from here, inside the locket I wear on my chest, she thought. She wiped the start of a tear from her eye.  
  
"You're going to smear your eyeliner!" her friend Kate warned.  
  
"This stuff? I could go swimming and it wouldn't smear," she replied.  
  
"Your dad come by to give you any words of wisdom?" Kate asked as she fixed the red flowers in her hair.  
  
"He came by," Gaz replied, smoothing out her dress. "But all he could do was talk about mom, how I looked like her, how beautiful I'd become."  
  
"I remember you from elementary school. You haven't changed a bit, Gaz, even if you did get taller."  
  
"I'll take that as a compliment," she replied, tugging on her garter belt. It was overly tight, and had begun to get itchy.  
  
"Gaz! Can't you act lady-like for even a day?" another girl in a purple dress accented with red flowers asked.  
  
"Sorry," she said sheepishly, putting her dress back down. She wished she had gotten the one with the shorter train. Why did she have to like dresses with such long trains?  
  
The dress was a creamy white, low-cut across her chest. The arms were lacy and extended into fingerless gloves over her hands. Each wrist was adorned with a pale white ribbon and the blossom of a white rose. "This is going to set dad back a mint," she said thoughtfully.  
  
"Your dad said you were worth it, didn't he?" The other girls in the room laughed, but Gaz didn't. She was too nervous to laugh.  
  
They were wrong about her not changing. Back in elementary skool, she hadn't had any friends. Going to high school, finding the others goths, ravers, and rivetheads had been a blessing to her. She suddenly had friends. She suddenly found herself hanging with the same group of people as Zim.  
  
Her brother, on the other hand, hadn't changed. He'd gone all the way to college a loner. Gaz sighed. He'd always been there in the shadows, watching like a hawk over Zim. Watching over her. It was kind of creepy, really, the way he stalked their little group. She knew the whisperings in school said that her brother was a creepy stalker.  
  
Staring out the window into the beautiful blue sky, Gaz wondered if Dib would be there today. He'd been sent an invitation, but… he'd been so weird, lately. She hoped if he did show up, he wouldn't do anything embarrassing. She especially hoped that he wouldn't start something with Zim. This was finally her day, not his. She was tired of being simply known as "Dib's Scary Sister." She was a real person with a real name, for the love of God.  
  
Finally, everything was ready. Gaz took a deep breath and stepped out of the preparation room.  
  
She finally got a chance to see the church, all decorated up. The shiny silver crosses sat beside a less familiar logo, the purplish form of a circle with two triangles extending out of the top and a small triangle down the bottom.  
  
On her side sat most of her family and her few, few friends. The vast majority of her side was filled up with people her dad worked with. That was okay with her. After all, the groom had packed his side of the church pretty full.  
  
Gaz could only smile with her brightest, yet most cruel smile. Her side of guests kept staring at the other side. Well, it wasn't like she blamed them. The first three rows of the groom's side were filled up with scrawny, red and purple eyed, green skinned creatures in militaristic space suits. The remaining rows hosted assorted giant rats, four-armed ogre creatures, five gangly, red-faced creatures in "Foodcourtia" uniforms, and all assorted other space creatures that Zim had seen fit to invite. Geez, thought Gaz as she shook her head. What had he done, invited the entire galaxy?  
  
"GAZ!" a voice cried, and she found herself wrapped in a tight glomp.  
  
"Aack… nice to see you, Dee." Dee released Gaz from her death grip and stood back. She was dressed in the same purple and red outfits as the other bridesmaids. "It looks great on you," Gaz complimented her.  
  
"No, you look super-great! After all, it's your day, so you get the compliments."  
  
"Is Reiinko ready?"  
  
"He's never performed a wedding before. This will be his first ceremonial act as new tallest, so go easy on him. He's kind of… shaky."  
  
"How is the human priest doing sharing podium space with the Invader tallest?" Gaz asked nervously. Her fingers twitched with small motions. It wasn't often that she didn't have a computer under her hands. Her natural love of GameSlave17 had resulted in her going into the computer game programming industry.  
  
"He's okay. What about… your brother?"  
  
"He never RSVP'd to say he was coming," Gaz said, looking down. "I mean, I know he still wants to kill Zim, but I thought… it's my wedding," Gaz wept softly. Dee pulled a cloth out from her bag and wiped Gaz's tears away, being careful not to get it on her.  
  
Meanwhile, Red and Purple were hanging out by the window. "This suit is too… itchy," commented Red, scratching himself. He looked up at Purple. "What's wrong with you?" he asked.  
  
"I always cry at weddings!" he sobbed, sniffling and wiping his eyes.  
  
"You've never been to a wedding before!"  
  
There was a momentary pause. "Well, I'm crying now, so I always cry at weddings," Purple retorted, sticking out his long, corkscrew like tongue at Red. Red sighed heavily.  
  
"We did we EVER agree to be in Zim's wedding? I can just see the disasters waiting to happen!"  
  
"Because Reiinko and Dee asked nicely," Purple answered. "Hey, bet you five squid something will catch on fire."  
  
"Bet you ten it's the buffet table."  
  
"Deal," Purple answered, and they shook on it.  
  
"Everyone get in your places! It's about to start!" someone called loudly, probably one of Gaz's human bridesmaids. Everyone scrambled to get into place. Gaz took a deep breath. I hope I don't pass out, she thought.  
  
[This will be two chapters because it's too long to put in one.] 


	2. It begins, part two.

GIR was first in line, a basket of flowers underneath one arm. He'd begged and begged to be in the wedding processional, and flower robot was the best thing they could think of that probably wouldn't cause too big of disaster.  
  
Behind him followed Gaz's two little cousins, another flower girl and a ring boy. They'd figured they better have a back-up flower person just in case, and they certainly weren't stupid enough to trust GIR with the rings.  
  
Behind them came Jessica, a tall girl with half-blonde, half-black hair, as the dye was coming out. She was nervously holding onto Red's arm, shaking a bit. She'd never been so close to an alien before.  
  
Behind her, Kate simply shook her head. She'd hung out with Zim so much that it didn't bother her that she had to link arms with Purple. "I got the better bridesmaid," Purple whispered. Red made a threatening motion at him, but the threatening look in Gaz's eyes shut both of them up before anything major happened.  
  
Behind them stood Keet, linked arm in arm with Dee. Gaz had decided that it was best to have a small wedding party, considering the relationship between number of Irkens in one place and likelihood of disaster occurring.  
  
The processional began then. The chosen processional was VNV Nation's "Praise the Fallen 2012." [I got this via mp3 from a friend, so if the name is wrong, oops. The song I have is soooo pretty. If I were getting married, I'd use it.] GIR dashed down the isle overly fast, throwing flowers wildly, then simply plopped down beside Zim's legs. Several flowers came down heavily on people's heads. Zim, looking a very pale green and sweating a lot, barely noticed. He was too busy watching the wedding part and trying to swallow his heart back down into his ribs.  
  
It had been a long, hard ride for them. In the middle of a televised school concert, Dib had leaped forward to rip off Zim's disguise. Exposed and on television, Zim had raced from the skool, sobbing and screaming. He'd blown the mission. They knew everything about him. He'd tried so hard. He'd even started hormone therapy so that he could grow along with the humans and avoid suspicion.  
  
It was Gaz who'd caught up with him first, as she had spooky abilities to do so. It was Gaz who'd held him as he wept, thinking his life was over. He couldn't go home a failure, and the humans were coming for him. It was Gaz who'd come between Zim and the entire army and screamed "YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!"  
  
And it was Gaz who'd convinced Reiinko and Dee not to launch a volley of death upon the Earth. It was always Gaz. Always had been Gaz. Always would forever be Gaz. Even if her brother was an alien-hating idiot. Dib still screamed about how Zim should have ended up on an autopsy table, not as Irken ambassador to Earth. That's why Zim hadn't wanted to invite Dib, but Gaz had insisted that at least one be sent. It didn't look like Dib was going to show up. That was a load off Zim's mind, but still… he hoped it didn't disappoint Gaz too much.  
  
"Hover, stop, hover, stop," Red muttered to himself, trying to remember how they told him the human tradition of going down the isle went. He wished he'd paid more attention during the rehearsal.  
  
"You hover like my grandmother," Purple hiss-whispered from behind, drawing snickers from Kate. Eventually, through all the comic routine, all four made it to the front. The two children in the procession had rolled their eyes while watching the adults. If they behaved like that, they'd have gotten spanked.  
  
Keet tripped a couple of times, as he hadn't gotten any smarter as he got somewhat taller, but Dee's excellent sense of balance kept him upright. She basically dragged him along behind her, sighing with exasperation as she did so.  
  
The processional stopped then, and the traditional "Here comes the bride," kicked in. Gaz took a deep breath, holding tight to her dad's lab coat, and the arm beneath. "Let's do this," Gaz whispered, and took the first step forward.  
  
Everyone stood up, as the human custom dictated. Gaz blushed as she watched an entire church full of people and alien life forms crank their bodies back to watch her. She felt like a celebrity or something.  
  
Well, this WAS supposed to be the happiest day of a girl's life. As a child, Gaz had always doubted that. Now that she was actually here, under the spotlights, she felt something she couldn't describe. She wasn't just happy, she was beyond happy. She was even past ecstatic. She was… well, even euphoric didn't cover it.  
  
She heard whispering all around, but her ears could pick up none of it. She did catch a snippet of someone commenting on the fact that her dad was wearing his lab coat over his tuxedo, but she didn't really mind. He was her dad, and insanity ran in the family, but she loved him anyway.  
  
Finally they reached the end of the isle, and her dad went to sit down. Gaz noted duly, with brief amusement, that both retired tallests were now balling their eyes out.  
  
The human priest got to go first. "Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here to witness the union of Gaz Membrane with Invader Zim… blah blah blah… you know the drill… Zim, do you take Gaz, a human woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"  
  
Zim swallowed incredibly deeply before finally croaking out "I do."  
  
"Gaz, do you take Zim, an Irken male, to be you lawfully wedded husband?"  
  
"I do."  
  
It was finally Reiinko's turn. He looked worse than either the bride or the groom as far as nervousness went. His red eyes were shining, and his ceremonial hat kept getting in his eyes. "May you both go forward with the blessing of the Irken Gods," he said. "May they always protect you, and the home planet, with the love of progression."  
  
"And bless the all mighty tallest," Zim and Gaz answered back, as was the tradition. If they'd gotten married only a year earlier, it would have been tallests.  
  
He touched each of their hands. "Let the union bind your hands, your thoughts, your minds and your souls with a bond that no laser can break. This is a great responsibility. Computer Programmer Gaz, do you take Invader Zim to be your partner in souls?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And do you, Invader Zim, take Computer Programmer Gaz to be your partner in souls?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then with this I join you as one, indivisible."  
  
Then came the part they all dreaded every last one of them. The human priest said it. "If there be any man or woman here who had reason why these two should not be wed and joined as partners in soul, please speak now or forever hold your peace."  
  
All eyes in the church went to the back of the church. Gaz gasped when she looked over her shoulder. Trench coat clad in black, with his black hair in messy spikes, Dib stood there. Gaz reached out for Zim's hand and squeezed tighter. Please, she thought. This is my wedding. Don't ruin it.  
  
Everyone watched. Dib made a fist, his face showing complete and total rage. Everyone waited… but Dib was silent. After a good five minutes of awkward staring, Reiinko finally interrupted with "Then-I-pronounce-you-man- and-woman-you-may-now-salivate-on-the-bride-have-a-nice-day-see-you-at-the- reception."  
  
"Kiss the bride!" Kate hissed quietly in Reiinko's direction, understand what he meant. Zim had made the same mistake originally, and it had sent her and Gaz into giggling fits of laughter. They'd chosen the "Invader March" for the recessional, and everyone watched and applauded as the wedding party left the church.  
  
Next, everyone stood outside the church, rice containers in hand. GIR had already thrown his… all over himself. The Voot cruiser, covered in streamers and with cans and shoes tied on the back, and a big "Just married" sign across one side, sat waiting. There was a small sign by it reading "Please do not throw rice in the cruiser."  
  
"What are you doing?" Purple asked.  
  
"What?" Red asked back.  
  
"Why are you eating the rice?"  
  
"Uh… cuz it's there?" he asked, mouth full. "It's a bit chewy…"  
  
"You're not supposed to eat it, you're supposed to throw it."  
  
"Oh. Okay," Red said, throwing a handful all over Purple's head.  
  
"At the bride and the groom when they come out of the church," Purple said with an exhausted sigh.  
  
Inside the church, only Dib, Zim, and Gaz remained. The two, holding hands, stared at the one. Gaz broke the silence. "You didn't object."  
  
"Oh, I still object. I think this is sick and unholy. But looking at you, at your eyes… you're my little sister. I just couldn't ruin your wedding."  
  
Gaz rushed up and embraced him so hard he gasped for air. "Thanks, Dib. I won't forget this. I might even let you live next time you annoy me."  
  
"Thanks," he choked. "Oh, and Zim, you better be ready to run out of the church, because I'm going to be outside with a two pound bag of rice," Dib warned as he sauntered off.  
  
The two little SIRS that had been carrying Gaz's train were busily tucking it up in the back so that she could run. When they were done, they both gave her the robot-claws-up sign. Gaz looked at Zim, and he returned the glance. "Ready to run?" she asked. He nodded.  
  
They took off out the front doors. Immediately there was rice going everywhere, since quite a few of the invaders still didn't grasp the concept of rice throwing. "Ow! Your stupid Dib-brother is purposely pelting me hard!" Zim cried.  
  
"Run faster then!" Gaz laughed back breathlessly.  
  
"I'm running as fast as I can with you in stupid heels!" Zim replied back, spitting out rice as he did.  
  
They jumped inside the cruiser, slamming down the dome and vertically ascending into the sky. The sound of car horns and ship noisemakers filled the air so loud that some of the children clamped their hands over their ears.  
  
Up above, Zim and Gaz waved down before their ship shot off into the sky. They'd be back for the reception, but now was the time for them to have a little peace and quiet in the hectic day.  
  
"I love happy endings," GIR sniffled.  
  
Coming Later…  
  
Reception Time! 


End file.
